


Framed

by GothicWolf03



Category: Assassin's Creed
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-26
Updated: 2015-10-31
Packaged: 2018-04-28 08:11:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5084683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GothicWolf03/pseuds/GothicWolf03
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jacob takes an eye exam, and the results are not what he had anticipated.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I've always wondered what he would look like with glasses . . . XD

The small bell chimed throughout the quaint establishment as two figures walked inside the shop. Evie strolled over to the counter, ringing the antique desk bell while she waited for the owner to come out from the back room. Her elbow lounged on top of the counter, turning around to find her younger brother by the glass displays.

“Jacob, what are you doing?”

His gloved fingers stroked the edges of the oaken frame while picking up an interesting contraption. “Just looking around.”

“Well, be careful. The last thing we need is to repay for any damages; we’re still short on shillings thanks to your bets on the carriage races.”

“It was all good fun, no need to be so uptight,” he waved her off, next inspecting the various eyewear. “Glad I don’t have to wear these. They’re ridiculous.”

Evie rolled her eyes, peering over the counter just as a middle-aged man came bounding over the front with trudging footsteps. “Dr. Freedman,” she greeted.

“Ah, if it isn’t the Frye twins. How may I be of service?”

“My brother Jacob needs an eye exam. He hasn’t taken one in over _three years_ ,” she emphasized the last part towards her brother, who only shrugged off her comment as he continued messing around with other trinkets.

“Yes. Unfortunately, my break starts in a few minutes, but Dr. Finley is more thank welcome to assist you. He’s available three doors down,” he pointed towards the narrow hallway on the left side before placing his bowler hat over his head and grabbing his things. “Good day, Ms. Frye.”

“Thank you. Come on, Jacob.” She snatched the sleeve of his coat, forcibly dragging him off towards the back room Dr. Finley was located.

The elder twin pushed aside the dark curtain, glancing inside the room where an elderly sat on a chair, scribbling away on his notepad with break-neck speed. “Dr. Finley?”

“Hm?” The doctor snapped his head off to where he heard his name calling, taking off his bifocals as he rapidly stood up from the desk, grunting when he clumsily hit his knee against the desk. He balanced himself with his hand on the dark surface before sheepishly smiling at the two customers. “Sorry, please sit over here.”

Jacob sat in the center of the room while his sister stayed by the exit, sighing as he leaned back with his hands behind his head. “So, what would you have me do?”

“Oh, you’re fine right where you are. Just place a hand over one of your eyes and read out the letters that I point out.”

“Excellent.” Jacob did as instructed, covering his right eye first while the doctor dimmed the lights of the candle burner. The assassin squinted a bit from the sudden darkness, allowing his eye to adjust before Dr. Finley could point to a random word on the first row. “B . . . X . . . M . . . T . . . Q . . .”

The doctor didn’t offer any comments, flipping the board over to display smaller fonts than the one before. Jacob didn’t squint much, though the words were a bit difficult to decipher as it took him a few seconds longer to answer. “H . . . D . . .”

This session took nearly twenty minutes, with Evie waiting outside the examination room after getting bored from watching her brother recite almost the entire alphabet. Jacob blinked when the doctor shoved the curtains from the window aside, overwhelmed by the blinding light in the room. He rubbed his tired eyes, yawning as he stood up from his chair. “I’ll be going now. Thank you, Dr. Finley.”

“Wait just one moment, Mr. Frye.” The doctor reached inside his drawer, fishing through the various objects laying haphazardly in the small space before retracting a wide bifocal glasses. “Don’t forget these.”

Jacob blinked, widening his eyes as he reluctantly took the glasses. “What for? I said every word correctly.”

The doctor shook his head. “I’m afraid not. Your eyesight is horrendous; you missed every word on here.”

“What? Show me.” Jacob gandered at the charts, narrowing his eyes as he observed the visible fonts of each word where the doctor pointed to, finding it odd that the words he pointed to didn’t match the ones he had recited earlier. “I could’ve sworn I said it correctly . . . Maybe I was wrong . . .”

“Precisely.” He closed the charts, setting them aside as his hand awkwardly felt for his shoulder, gesturing for the male to walk to the front of the store. “Wear them at all times. Should you have any troubles, feel free to stop by anytime. Good day.”

Evie curiously watched their exchange, noticing the deep frown on Jacob’s face. “So, how did it go?”

“Glasses? Not in a million years would I ever imagine myself wearing these.” He placed the loathing object on his face, taking a few steps back from the new perspective as he took in his surroundings. “These are terrible.”

Evie restrained a small smile, agreeing that her brother looked completely different when he wore the bifocals. “My, don’t you look dashing.”

“Haha, very funny.”

* * *

 

He hated them with a burning passion—the whole lot of them.

He had told Evie that he didn’t want to wear the confounding instrument while they walked back to the _Seven Bells_ tavern, afraid someone he knew would ridicule his new look. He hid himself beneath his top hat, raising the collar of his trench coat higher as he quickly walked down the streets of London.

_Maybe they won’t care. I’m still their boss, after all._

Oh how he’d been wrong.

The first person to gaze upon his face was Clara when she was busy serving drinks from table to table. The young barmaid had instantly looked up when the Frye twins walked in, beaming as she bounded towards Evie while Jacob obscured his face away from her. “Welcome back. I delivered the parcel like you asked.”

Evie patted the girl’s back, a smile adorning her freckled face. “Thank you, Clara. Busy day as usual?”

“Yeah, though it wasn’t quite productive as—” Clara stopped halfway through her statement, her brown eyes quizzically peeking at Jacob’s face. “Jacob, is something wrong?”

“No,” he curtly replied, furrowing himself away from her intruding stare.

Before he had time to register her sneaky action, his hat was snatched away from his head, causing the British man to shout at her while she gasped in shock. “Give that back!”

Clara returned the hat to the older male, her eyes crinkling and lips trembling as she gaped at him, hiding her head in her elbow as she slammed the table with the palm of her other hand. She didn’t cower from his death glare, instead choosing this moment to cackle at his angry expression as tears leaked from her eyes. “Oh god, this is too good to be true!”

“Go on, laugh all you want. You’re just _enjoying_ this, aren’t you?” He exasperatedly sighed as the teenager continued her outburst, the little brunette practically jumping in joy from the hilarity of it. Her giggles distracted him from the strangers that entered the tavern behind him.

“Boss, we got the—”

_Oh dear god, not my men_. They weren’t supposed to be back until later on this evening, having been overloaded with over five different, tedious errands that should’ve had them exploring all of London. But it seemed that fate had other plans in store for Jacob, plans that involved his ultimate humiliation and shame.

Like Clara, his Rooks took one look at the bifocals on top of his nose and broke out in a chorus of hearty guffaws, their rumbling roars nearly shaking the whole place down. Most of them managed to control their trembling frames, though some couldn’t control their wheezing laughs as they collapsed onto the booths, hiding their faces on the cushiony furniture.

“Alright!” Everyone silenced from his abrupt yell, studying the gauntlet hand with suspicion as it freely swung in the air, afraid that they would be punished severely by the steel blade. “Since you all think this is funny, why don’t we double your workload for the whole week?”

Their pained groans brought a pleasant smirk upon his face, glad that he still had control over them after his ego was crushed. He heaved a heavy sigh of relief, plopping down on an unoccupied chair next to Clara. “You lot meet me in Devil’s Acre. I’ll be there in a second to assign you your next mission.”

Evie shook her head from their defeated looks as they left the area, letting her arm cradle the back-end of the chair Jacob was sitting in. “Well, looks like you have everything under control. I have to meet Henry at the station. Don’t do anything reckless.”

“No problem,” he said, looking over his shoulder at her retreating form before taking off his glasses and attempting to shove them inside his coat.

“Jacob.”

“Fine!” He begrudgingly put the lens over his face, crossing his arm across his chest like a pouty child.

_Since when did Evie have eyes in the back of her head?_


	2. Chapter 2

An unrecognizable figure stormed down the crowded alleyway, heavily panting as he weaved through the small spaces between people. Jacob trailed not far behind him, carelessly shoving passerbys by using his elbows as he pursued his enemy.

“Get back here!” the assassin yelled, stopping in front of the brick wall where he last saw the target escape via the rooftops. Aiming his rope launcher up high, he gave a testing tug on the bound wire before scaling up the wall, seeing the man run further away from him.

“Rooks! Catch the bastard.”

Thugs wearing green and yellow attires abruptly appeared out of their hiding places, trying to pummel the running man to the ground but failing at every turn. Even when one of them was armed with a blade, but nothing seemed to stop the target from escaping.

God, were his men really that poorly trained? He really needed to spend more time with his men.

“You won’t get away that easily.” He squinted a bit as he wearily leveled his gauntlet at a blurry chimney. Or was it a shutter?

_It doesn’t matter at the moment._ With that final thought, Jacob jumped off the roof as he swished into the air. The visage of his opponent became clearer as the scrawny man halted in his steps, trying to catch his breath. When he turned around, his eyes widened at the assassin that was heading his way.

Jacob readied his pistol while he continued zip lining, aiming the gun at the heaving man. “You’re mine—”

_Thump!_

All of the Rooks painfully ‘oohed’ when Jacob harshly collided with a window, his face smashed against the glass. They all yelped when their boss couldn’t hold on to the line any longer, falling several feet into a market cart after his fingers released their grasp, crushing all of the fruits with his weight and accelerated velocity.

The thief, baffled by his enemy’s failed attempt in capturing him, gave a short snort before escaping. The Rooks didn’t seem to pay him any mind, still watching for any signs of life from their boss.

“Wait, he’s breathing,” one of them replied.

The merchants screeched in surprise, then their shocked expressions morphed into angry frowns as they neared the groaning man. Jacob wiped his eyes underneath his glasses, cursing when he glanced down at his dirtied outfit. But when he felt hands fist inside his shirt, he immediately punched the unknown assailant before sprinting away from the scene, people running after him.

“Should we help him?”

The tallest of the Rooks shook his head. “Nah, he’ll be fine. He always is.”

* * *

 

_Where are they?_   Jacob wondered, ducking his head in time as the incoming rock collided with the wall. _Seriously, who throws rocks around here?_

The assassin kicked crates out in front of him, hoping to slow down the masses as he continued running. He grinned back at the disgruntled people who tripped over his diversion, nearly pumping his fists in the air as he lost sight of their forms.

Stopping in front of a street lamp, Jacob straightened out his messy attire, fixing the top hat on his head before casually holding his hand out to the side to lean on the lamppost.

But all he felt was air, and he was sent crashing down onto the sidewalk.

“Not again.” He took off his bifocals, frowning from the various cracks on the lens. “Why aren’t they working?”

This wasn’t the only time where he was in a situation like this one; just a few days ago he had mistaken a naked statue for an old lady, almost killed a child when he could’ve _sworn_ the boy was his enemy, and was close to swallowing a coin when he had assumed it was a chocolate bar.

He was close to tearing up from all the bad luck lately, but he kept his head held up high and promised that this mission will be the mission that solves all of his problems . . . until he had to crash himself against a window.

Jacob was beyond astonished that he managed to survive this long.

“Mr. Frye?”

Jacob stared at the leather shoes in front of him, letting his eyes trail up to the familiar face of Dr. Freedman. He thanked the doctor as he was hoisted back onto his knees, showing the glasses to the man. “I’ve been wearing them as instructed, yet all I see are blurred images everywhere. Either I’ve gone mad, or something is definitely up.”

“Yes about that . . . I recently discovered of Mr. Finley’s condition, so no need to worry about him anymore.”

Jacob blinked. “Beg your pardon?”

“He’s blind,” Freedman elaborated.

“Hang on, so I’ve been wearing this confounding object only to discover that I never needed them in the first place?”

“I would say yes, however you still haven’t necessarily passed your test.” They strolled inside the shop, the doctor signaling for the young man to follow him as they were back into the examination room. “Shall we try again?”

“Right.” Jacob went all the way to the back of the room, choosing to remain standing as the doctor prepared the letter chart. He rubbed his sweaty palms together, nervously running down his pants before covering one eye and repeating every word pointed out to him.

Dr. Finley’s smile reassured the male assassin that what he was saying in front of him was correct, and he couldn’t have been happier when the old man came chuckling out of the room with a pat on his back. “My boy, you do not need to worry anymore. You have perfect vision.”

“Thank you, doctor.”

“And here is your reward!” Jacob’s eyes nearly bursted from their sockets at the large cherry lollipop held out in front of his face. He was practically salivating at the sight of the delicious treat.

_No, restrain yourself Jacob. You’re a man!_

Jacob cleared his throat, shrugging the treat away. “No, I couldn’t. I’m too old for that and—ah, what the heck!”

The doctor sweat-dropped as he watched his patient hungrily munch on the treat, though the chime of the bell forced him to direct his attention towards the other customers that walked into the shop. “Please excuse me, Mr. Frye. I’ll be seeing you.”

“Mm-hm.” Jacob eyed the busy doctor with the two little boys, glancing back at the glass jar on the counter where the other treats sinfully beckoned for him to eat. He widely grinned, shoving the item inside his coat and making sure no one was looking before exiting the shop in a calmly fashion.

He didn’t even care about the sad faces of the boys when they discovered that the lollipops were misplaced by a grown assassin.


End file.
